No shoes, no shirt, but Mack Hollins is still serving.
The New England Patriots wide receiver showed up to a snowy Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts before his team’s matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, December 14, wearing nothing but his pants in a unique pregame outfit, if you want to call it that.
The Patriots shared a photo of the outfit via social media, while the NFL posted a short video to X.
Gillette Stadium saw some snow overnight, with flurries forecasted during the game. Temperatures have been in the low 30s all morning and will dip into the 20s throughout the afternoon.
Hollins, 32, is in his first year with the Patriots after playing for the Bills last season. This year, he finds himself on the flip side of the division rivalry. Perhaps his pregame outfit is a nod to some of the nasty winter weather he experienced in Buffalo.
During warmups, Hollins kept the shirtless look, but added shoes to his outfit.
Hollins is notorious for going barefoot before games but leaving the feet out on such a frigid day is a new choice for him.
On an August episode of the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, Hollins admitted that “no matter what the temperature is” he’s going barefoot for his gameday entrances — with the exception of a temp below 35 degrees.
Well, Hollins might have missed the weather report on Sunday.
“It’s not even hard to wear no shoes,” Hollins said on the podcast. “If it gets below 35 — I’m not an idiot, I’ll put shoes on — but walking in, no matter what, I have to go barefoot.”
He said he’s been walking into games barefoot for the last three or four years after training barefoot following an injury.
During his recovery, Hollis met a group of trainers from Australia who often went barefoot, which was about “getting back to your original ways of movement.”
“That grew into me training barefoot all the time,” he said.
“Three or four years ago, I was like, ‘What’s the point of the shoes?’ Now I don’t even pack them,” he said, admitting that in bathrooms and airports he will put on some foot coverings.
Sunday’s showdown between division rivals the Patriots and the Bills is a big one for both teams, as New England has a chance to break Buffalo’s five-year streak as division champions.
With a victory, the Patriots will win the AFC East for the first time since 2019, when the team won 11 consecutive division titles during the Tom Brady era.
The Patriots, at 11-2, haven’t seen this kind of success since Brady, now 48, left the team in 2020. A win on Sunday could solidify the team’s Super Bowl aspirations.
Hollins is in the midst of one of the better seasons of his career, with 440 yards and two touchdowns on 35 receptions in 13 games this season.
Sunday is not the first time that Hollis has turned heads with his pregame outfit. After Halloween, he dressed up as a Revolutionary War soldier in the full 1700s-era garb — a nod to the “Patriots Militia” fans who dress in special outfits for games.
